"Death to America" read the sign a young Iraqi waved overhead on TV last week. Had he, I wondered, any inkling what Americans and others were doing for his country before they were kidnapped or murdered? — Did he know, for instance, that the four U.S. contractors who were killed and mutilated in Fallujah March 30 neither built rape camps nor forcibly converted Muslims to Christianity? In fact, they protected food convoys so Iraqis might eat.
— Was this, or any, Iraqi aware that the April 11 slaying of Danish businessman Henrik Frandsen ended his efforts to launch a sewage project?
— This month’s abduction (and subsequent release) of Russian electrical workers kept them from repairing Iraqi power plants. Russia’s resulting evacuation of 800 civilian contractors won’t help, either.
— U.S. truck driver Thomas Hamill has delivered zero fuel since he was nabbed April 9 on Highway 10 outside Baghdad. Sorry if I rain on anyone’s parade, but the terrorists have efficient numbers, arms and allies to disrupt re-development in Iraq, in perpetuity. Idealists like Victor Davis Hanson delude themselves into thinking that we should, as Colin Powell said, "Stay the Course." That is folly. The time is now for re-patriating the entire Middle East oil-fields to the Anglo-American interests who discovered and developed same. To hell with contrarian opinions. Americans cannot allow the 90% of Mideast oil fields, which are located in Shiite demographic majority areas, to come under Iran’s effective control. |